Love is War

Chapter 31

I remain in the main room of the citadel to observe the place more and I might find some useful things. This part of the place is very big and I can’t believe that I needed to search this place for a long time because if you ask me, that’s a big time to waste if I did not find anything he-

Wait, I take that back and I saw something sparkling from afar in this aisle of chairs. Such a gimmick for the developers so the players will not have a hard time finding tools in this dark place. Rule number one in this kind of games, something is sparkling, it’s an item that can be picked up. I walked towards it, to find out what is it, and to pick it up if it’s useful for me and will help me to win this game. I reached the place and saw a note with a small sparkling star from its corner. As expected, I picked up the note and I will read what’s written on it.

“Dear Mother,

I reached the church by the time you are reading this; it’s been a week that I stayed inside the church and the bishop did not allow us to go outside and we are locked inside these doors. When the sun falls the place is changing as if we are inside a living creature, or is it just me being paranoid? But I have the gut feeling mother, that there is something fishy happening between that bishop and his disciple whose faces is always covered with sack with two holes for them to see.

Besides, it’s only been a week of me staying here, it might me tradition and I am just being a paranoid girl here. But worry not, I am fine here and my room mates are very kind to me and I am having a great time here. I can’t wait to be a fully pledged nun.

Love Nina”

After reading the old note, I put it inside my inventory, there is nothing useful in this note, at least I did not notice it, but it is still worth keeping. It’s just a note with the game’s lore and I find more notes I might piece the puzzle together and solve something to beat this game with only I winning this competition. I always have this feeling that the developers of this game have a hidden agenda for us and they want us to discover it.

All I know right now is that the people inside this church are running a cult back then, when the writer of this note is still alive. Nina and her notes might be my main co-protagonist of the game. This might be a game but I need to think that I am inside the game and treat it as if all of these are real.  If I don’t do that, I can’t concentrate.

That’s what good gamers do, and that’s why they love their hobby. There’s always more into it than just gaming and we are here to play it. After searching the whole place where the preach happen, I only find this note, a crowbar that might help me open doors and some pills. By that time I got the pills it’s the only time I noticed that I have a health bar in the top right corner of my screen and this pills are used to refill the missing health caused by the monsters later.

It’s been eight minutes and the difficulty of this game will rise in two more minutes and I need to hurry up to have my self, search more places quickly. This crowbar that I got is a huge game changer because I can access the locked doors earlier than my enemies.

I stopped when I heard a faint moaning from behind me and a tutorial popped up in front of me, that is telling me to hide somewhere and I need to press a certain key in my keyboard in front of places that I can I hide into. I am in front of a locker right now and I pressed the E button and my character hide inside the locker.

The moaning became louder and louder that’s why I must hide. I felt scared and that’s normal, because I am inside this game, and dying means over for me. I mean all is over for me if I die right now. I won’t die instantly because I have this health bar and I don’t know how much damage they can do to my character but I won’t dare because I need to maximize the supplies that I got.

My enemies are not just the ghosts inside this church but also the other four that are doing their own plans right now. I let the moaning ghost pass by me and it’s a nun with a big rounded black void eyes and it looks sad. It must be Nina if I am right and by now, she is a victim of the cult. Poor her.

Another tutorial popped in my screen that an indicator that has a logo of an eye, will tell me if the ghosts are aware of my presence. If the eye is colorless, I am safe, and if it’s yellow it’s aware of my presence in the area, and finally if it’s red it means that it spotted me and I need to hide until the eye logo is colorless again.

Right now, the eye logo is colored yellow and that means Nina is still here in the area and I need her to get out of this place before I continue to wander. The bell ringed when the ten-minute mark reaches and that means Nina and the other will be more aggressive. I am calling her Nina right now because of that note earlier and that must be her, and for me to be sure of my speculations I need to find more notes containing the lore so I will be sure of my thoughts.

Moments later the eye became colorless and I need to find more hiding spots because if my guess is right, the more the difficulty rises, the AI can do much more than just roam and search for us. If I am right, in twenty minutes mark the ghosts can open lockers such as this and put us out or they can run faster and their damage will be amplified and many more.

I am not sure because this is the first time, we played this game; I am only saying this base on my experience of such games. I also watched streamers playing horror games in my free time, and I donate to them sometimes because they give me entertainment and they deserve that.

In reality I really don’t care about money since we have a lot of it and what’s enough for me is all I care; I am not like those rich bastards that wants their money piling up like a mountain and they will die like they can take it to after life. I really can’t oppose my dad in that kind of thing because it is his job.

The eye logo became colorless and the moaning can be heard indistinctively and that means that Nina is getting far away from me and that means that it’s good for me because I can search this locker room and this room seems unlooted and I will take all the necessary items before getting out and moving forward. I need to be quick because the twenty-minute mark will hit soon and I need all the supplies as much as possible.

I am lucky with this crowbar because next to the locker room is a barricaded door and I can use this tool to unbarricade that door. First, I need to loot this place and I might find another note from it. I opened the locker door one by one and I am not disappointed with what the lockers have for me.

A couple of health supplies that is very helpful for later use and some notes that I will read later after I enter that barricaded door. Also a flashlight that will light the way and will help me to see clearly, because this place has no light source except for some places that has candles to it, like a ritual chamber.

I am really guessing that the cult has summoned some demon of such kind and we are here to explore the place to confirm the rumors and this group is supposed to be that group of friends that wandered inside here, according on what the beginning lore had said.

I went immediately to the barricaded door and I pressed E to use the crowbar to remove the wood planks. There is a 3 seconds animation of my character removing the wood planks from the door. There are three planks pinned on the door and it’s nine seconds wait, overall.

While I am busy removing the plank, I heard another player nearby and it might be hearing me, I don’t know who she or he is. The voice is vague so I can’t determine who is it. If it’s a woman it might be SenZ since there is only two of us female finalists in this competition. I know what Anonymous sounds like so if it’s a male unfamiliar voice then I only have two choices to make.

But now I don’t want to confirm who is it nor them finding me so I can take all the loot and clues for myself. I don’t want them catching up to me and as soon as the barricade was removed, I entered the door and closed it.

The room is dark and thankfully I have this flash light that I got from earlier and I hope that there is no one here, I mean the cult or the ghosts who are trying to kill us. The room wasn’t barricaded for no reason if the developers of this game are lore wise, and if not then they just put this barricaded door out of nowhere.

Well, all that matters is I win this game.